Broncos bring back Riley Dixon to punt

The once and future Bronco punter returns to compete with Corliss Waitman for the punter spot

The Denver Broncos announced that they have signed punter Riley Dixon. Denver originally drafted Riley Dixon in the 7th round of the 2016 draft. He was then traded to the New York Giants for a 7th round pick (which the Broncos then traded away).

Dixon was not a very good punter for the Broncos during his two seasons. I chronicled this during my end of year full league punting reviews after the 2016 and 2017 seasons (I actually skipped 2016, but I have done every year since and I did 2015).

He was a better punter than Corliss Waitman in 2022 though. As the punter for the Rams, Dixon finished 16th in long field punt percentage (maximizing field position) and 18th in short field punt percentage (punting from beyond the -35). Dixon was only a little better than Waitman in terms of precision punt percentage (% of punts downed inside the 10 – % of punts that go for touchbacks). Dixon finished at +2.8% which was 27th while Waitman finished at +1.0% which was 29th.

Dixon had a down year in 2022. He was actually much better in 2021 and 2020. I actually called out how much better former Bronco punters, Brett Kern, Britton Colquitt and Riley Dixon were after they left Denver in my 2020 punting review. Dixon was very good for the Giants in 2019.

Let’s hope he can regain that form that made him one of the better punters in the league in 2019.